HOOGTIJ/laagtij dag 8

Festival

Sibran Sampers (18:00-21:00)
Rituals and animals: equally traditional as controversial. Sibran Sampers delves into ‘Tripudiometrie’ and ‘Vogelwichelarij’: a Roman-Etruscan soothsaying method based on the behaviour of poultry. During 3 consecutive days the visitor can take part in a personal sessions with predicting quails under the watchful eye of the artist.
Lotte Vanhamel (23:00)
As a sinister High Priest, Lotte Vanhamel performs a ritual and musical spectacle. From behind an altar she brings repetitive mantras and dark chants with her voice and loops.
Nienke Baeckelandt (18:00-00:00)
During HOOGTIJ/laagtij Nienke Baeckelandt lifts her performance ‘SNIP IT’ to metaphysical heights. Ten days long she locks herself in an atelier, armed with paper, scissors and a headphone that conducts the rhythm of her action.
Rutger de Vries (21:00)
The in-situ work of Rutger de Vries gives HOOGTIJ/laagtij a solemn allure. He constructed a splendid ‘paint chandelier’, which he sparks every day at precisely 21h in the entrance hall.


HOOGTIJ/laagtij
During the yearly citywide craze, Gouvernement pays tribute to the “Homo Festivus” and “celebrating” as such. HOOGTIJ/laagtij is a festival within a festival, a scaled-down metaphor for a city on the verge of insanity. An invitation to both total surrender and sobering reflection.
Around twenty artists have been invited as the Masters of Ceremony of this 10 day-festival. They are commissioned with the task of immersing the audience into their idea of jubilation, transcendence and related rituals. Their daily actions ignite from a visual, theatrical or musical spark and draw on well-founded ceremonial heritage. Just as well, interventions are flagrant, nonsensical bursts of euphoria & decadence.
All actions leave specific, physical traces all over the Gouvernement-site. These will eventually lead to the formation of a ‘Gesammtkunstwerk’ and become a visual guideline for a reconstructive exhibition in the aftermath of the festival (27-30.07).
Forensic investigations reach a final stage with the release of publication by Jelle Martens and Raimundas Malašauskas (autumn 2017).
*with the support of Vooruit, Stad Gent & Vlaamse Gemeenschap


“The necessity for reversal is so important that it had, at one time, its consecration: there is no constitution of society which does not have, on the other hand, the challenging of its foundations; rituals show it: the saturnalias or festivals of madmen reversed the roles.”
Georges Bataille, Inner Experience (1943)
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PROGRAM HOOGTIJ/laagtij
14.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
18:00-00:00: De Zwarte Zuster Fanfare
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Pieter Ampe
15.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
21:00: Rutger Devries
22:00: Matthieu HA ‘Bomenklok’
23:00: van Twolips
16.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Charlotte Adigéry & Nicole Twister
17.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
21:00: Rutger Devries
22:00: Bert Jacobs
23:00: Gamelan Voices
18.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Sachli Gholamalizad & Sebastiaan Van den Branden
19.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
18:00-21:00: Sibran Sampers
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Kim Snauwaert & Anyuta Wiazemsky
20.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
18:00-21:00: Sibran Sampers
21:00: Rutger Devries
18:00-22:00: Borokov Borokov video opnames
23:00: Borokov Borokov concert
21.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
18:00-21:00: Sibran Sampers
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Lotte Vanhamel
22.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Micha Volders & Jaak De Digitale
23.07
18:00-00:00: Nienke Baeckelandt
21:00: Rutger Devries
23:00: Joris Van De Moortel